Isolated

Chapter One

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters.

A/N: Hello again, all! I'm back at it with another multi-chapter fic. I've had this plot bunny roaming around for quite awhile and I have a large portion of this story completely finished already, so I am excited to finally share it with you all! As always, reads and reviews are much appreciated! Please enjoy :)

January 1997

Hermione Granger stepped into Professor Slughorn's office early on a Sunday morning, eagerly prepared to assist with sorting vials of various potions needed for the upcoming term. She had been completely enthralled by Slughorn's 6th year potions class so far, and she hoped that by volunteering she would be able to get more hands-on experience with the handling and care of previously brewed concoctions.

Aside from the one, singular disastrous attempt to brew the Draught of Living Death last term, she had been rather successful in potions this year so far and was curious to learn more.

"Miss Granger, do come in!" Slughorn waved her into his office.

Hermione greeted him enthusiastically. "Good morning, professor! How may I assist you today?"

Slughorn chuckled. "Ah, Granger, punctual and prepared as ever! You may start by helping me sort through this closet over here, come." Slughorn led Hermione to a large, wooden closet in the back of the room and her curiosity was growing as to what she would find inside.

Slughorn opened the closet with a flick of his wand and toppled forward to grasp onto a single vial right before it threatened to fall haphazardly out of the closet and spill onto the floor.

The closet was filled to the brim with glass vials of various sizes and shapes. Each individual bottle held a liquid of an assorted array of colors. Hermione stared at the potions wondrously.

"Oops, might be a bit full, I'm afraid. I don't suppose you have any tips for reorganizing this mess, do ya?" Slughorn chortled.

Hermione resisted the opportunity to roll her eyes. Although she thought that Slughorn was brilliant, he had a tendency to be quite scatter-brained. Judging by the state of his entire office, he really could do with a good decluttering.

"It might be beneficial to sort through these vials by color and label each one more clearly." Hermione reached inside the cabinet to pick up a select vial that held a deep purple liquid inside. "For example, this vial doesn't even have a label on it, preventing someone from knowing what it is."

"Well, that's the Draught of Peace!" Slughorn responded matter-of-factly.

"Precisely. You know what it is Professor, but others may not. And without a clear, definitive label, the wrong potion may fall into unintended hands," Hermione reasoned.

Slughorn considered her suggestion for a moment. "I suppose you're right, as always Miss Granger. Yes, I will trust you completely to sort through this mess however you see fit." Slughorn was already walking back towards his desk.

Hermione nodded in satisfaction. "I will start with the vials that are already clearly marked and set aside the unknowns for you to take a look at later."

Hermione spent close to an hour transferring bottles out of the cabinet and placing them back inside, this time organized in rows alphabetically, based on the name listed on the vial. She was entirely intrigued by the contents of some of the potion names she read - Invisibility, Wolfsbane, Veritaserum, Elixir of Life...all potions that she had already read and studied in class, but she had never actually seen many of them up close. Her hand then brushed the cork on top of a particularly pink bottle that she knew held Amortentia. Love potion.

Hermione blushed scarlet as she thought back to the whiff of the potion she received during a class late last fall, more particularly as she recalled what exactly or rather who exactly she smelled.

Hermione shook her head as she contemplated her rather tumultuous relationship with Ron Weasley. It was hard enough to admit to herself that she fancied her best friend, but his brief coupling with Lavender Brown last fall had nearly thrown her off a ledge. To her surprise, Ron decided not to pursue a relationship with Lavender beyond a heated snog immediately following a Quidditch match and all had seemingly returned back to normal by Christmas. Still, her relationship with Ron had been quite rocky the past few months. He had snapped at her incessantly for no reason in the common room and she retorted by sending a flock of birds at his head after she witnessed him snogging Lavender.

Apart from helping Slughorn out with reorganizing his office on the weekends, Hermione was an active participant in his notorious "Slug Club" events and even attended a Christmas party hosted by him in mid-December. Hermione had originally invited Ron to join her for the party, intended as a date, however the Lavender fiasco happened in the midst of it all, and Ron and Hermione stopped speaking to each other until the train arrived into King's Cross Station on Christmas break.

Hermione recalled her conversation with Ron just before she stepped off of the train to go find her waiting parents. He had grabbed a hold of her wrist gently and murmured a simple "I'm sorry." With a final promise to write over the Christmas break, Hermione left and they returned to Hogwarts two weeks later acting as if nothing had happened. They were once again Ron and Hermione.

Although Hermione was grateful that she was back on speaking terms with her best friend, it didn't diminish the feelings she still harbored for him and one glance at the bottle of pink potion in her hands only reminded her of that.

With a heavy sigh, Hermione set the vial on the shelf in the appropriate location, just before glancing up at the clock on the wall to check the time. 10:45 am. She had been hard at work in Slughorn's office for almost two hours and now she was due to meet Ron in the library for studying in fifteen minutes. How she had managed to convince him to meet with her, in the library of all places and on the weekend, was beyond her. But she supposed it had something to do with him still trying to make it up to her from their missed date last semester and stay in her good graces. She wasn't going to complain.

"Professor, I'm sorry, but I need to be going now. I'm due to study with a friend," Hermione called over to Slughorn, who raised his head from his desk and shuffled his papers.

"Oh sure, sure, let me just help you return the last few vials to the closet before you go." He hurried over to where Hermione was standing and together they began transferring vials one by one. Although Hermione had been incredibly focused and careful when handling the vials all morning long, her hands slipped when reaching for a vial holding a deep green liquid and she watched as it crashed to the floor, breaking apart instantly, shards of glass flying and green liquid seeping out everywhere.

"Oh dear!" Slughorn shouted, pulling his now green-splattered shoes away from the mess on the floor.

Hermione hissed as she turned the palm of her hand over to reveal a deep red gash, cut by a shard of glass. There was a throbbing, burning sensation as the blood started to trickle from the cut and she quickly pressed her other hand over the wound.

"Here, here," Slughorn pressed a clean handkerchief into her hand and Hermione held it firmly on the open cut in an attempt to stop the bleeding. "Head straight to Madame Pomfrey, right away, so she can heal up that cut! I'll clean this up, don't you worry."

Hermione couldn't stop herself from asking, "Professor? What exactly was in that bottle? It wasn't marked?" And it wasn't a potion color she recognized.

Slughorn looked down at the discarded bottle grimly. "You know, I'm not exactly sure, but you shouldn't worry my dear. Just get yourself to the hospital wing, yeah?"

Hermione was rather confused by his hasty reply, but nonetheless followed his instructions and exited the room quietly.

After leaving Slughorn's office, she noted the time on the clock and she didn't want Ron to start worrying when she didn't show. Hermione pulled her wand out of her pocket and muttered a quick spell that instantly stopped the bleeding and cleaned any dry blood off of her hand. The wound was still visible, and she would have Madame Pomfrey take a look, but she decided that it could wait until after she met with Ron.

Hermione retrieved her books from her dormitory and quickly made her way to the school library. She walked through the double doors and immediately spotted Ron at a table far in the back, corner section of the library. She observed, quite annoyingly, that he had not opened his books on the table but had instead opted to flip through a Quidditch magazine while he waited for her. Boys.

Ron looked up from his magazine as she approached and offered her a tentative smile. "And here I thought I was going to be the late one!"

Hermione huffed as she took a seat directly across from him at the table. "I'll have you know, Ronald, that I was helping Professor Slughorn organize potions for the start of term. Just lost track of time a little, that's all."

"Right," Ron muttered and he closed his magazine. "So, let's do this, then." He sounded completely bored already and she glared at him.

"Nice to see you too, Ron."

Ron scoffed. "You know that's not what I meant. You know that I would hang out with you practically anywhere, but you're lucky that I am here, that's all I gotta say. Why couldn't we have studied in the common room?"

Hermione sighed inwardly at Ron's whining. "Because, the common room is incredibly noisy and you're more likely to focus on actually doing your work when you're not constantly bothered by quidditch talk and chess matches!"

Ron raised his arms in surrender. "Fine, fine." He flipped open his History of Magic book. "So you wanna help me revise this essay?"

"Sure," Hermione nodded. "Where are your notes from class?"

Ron retrieved a crinkled paper from his book and handed it to Hermione, who wrinkled her nose. "Ron, your handwriting really is…"

"Awful, yeah yeah, I know," Ron snapped, "Now can you help me or what?"

"I suppose," Hermione relented. She leaned over the table and pointed to an underlined section in his book. "So this is where we left off in class…"

"Wait - what happened to your hand?" Ron interrupted and he grabbed her injured hand without waiting for her to answer to take a closer look.

Hermione bit her lip and averted her attention to the makeshift bandage she had currently on her hand to hide the cut, formed out of the white handkerchief that was twisted and tied around her entire right hand. "It's nothing Ron, I just cut it on a piece of glass, that's all."

"Really?" His eyebrows creased together with concern. "He lifted the bandage slightly to take a peek at the gash underneath. "It looks pretty deep, did you stop by to see Madame Pomfrey?"

Hermione snatched her hand out of Ron's. "I'll go as soon as we leave here, don't worry."

"Or we could go now," Ron suggested, already standing up from the table, "Come on, I'll go with you. You don't want that cut getting infected."

Hermione's heart swelled as she witnessed Ron fuss over a simple cut on her hand. He always had such great protective instincts and he was almost always the first one to notice when something was off with her. In this moment though, she figured that it only partially had to do with concern for her and also simply that he was using it as a tactic to get out of revising.

"No, no way, you are not getting out of studying!" Hermione jabbed a finger at him.

Ron rolled his eyes. "Oh come on, Hermione, we can come back and study after all you want, okay? Let's just get you checked out first."

Hermione considered his words and eventually resigned to agreeing. "Well...alright. But we are coming back to study!" She stood and gathered her books, prepared to turn towards the door when it suddenly banged open and Professor McGonagall appeared.

McGonagall scanned the room until her eyes fell on Ron and Hermione and shuffled towards them rapidly. "Ah, Miss Granger, I've been looking for you. Professor Slughorn said I may find you here."

"Is everything alright, professor?" Hermione questioned worriedly. She exchanged a brief glance with Ron, who too looked just as confused.

McGonagall's lips formed a thin line. "I'm afraid I will need you to come with me, Miss Granger. Immediately."

"Where are you taking her?" Ron asked instantly.

"That is confidential for now, Mr. Weasley. I'm sorry. Miss Granger, we must hurry. Please, gather your belongings and follow me, quickly now." McGonagall spun on her heel and hastily retreated towards the library exit.

Hermione threw an apologetic look towards Ron and reached out to squeeze his hand once in reassurance, before she scurried out the room, nearly tripping over her own feet in order to keep up with the professor.

"Professor, can you tell me where we are going?" Hermione inquired breathlessly as she followed her down the corridor.

"Right this way," McGonagall ushered Hermione into the hospital wing. Hermione briefly wondered if she had found out about her potion mishap earlier this morning and was checking to make sure she had been properly taken care of. However, as McGonagall continued past the rows and rows of hospital beds and opened a hidden door at the back of the room, Hermione wasn't quite sure of her theory anymore.

"In here, Miss Granger, and please do not touch anyone or anything." Hermione's stomach dropped as she became increasingly worried as to the matter of this particular request. Don't touch anything?

Hermione entered the room and noticed Madame Pomfrey standing in the corner donning a rather surly expression on her face. "What's this about?" Hermione questioned once more. She took in the contents of the room and was startled to find a clear, glass box positioned in the middle of the darkened room. It hosted a camp bed with some blankets, but was otherwise completely bare.

"Miss Granger, it has come to my attention that earlier this morning you were involved in a laboratory accident in Professor Slughorn's office, correct?" McGonagall asked.

Hermione nodded slowly.

McGonagall frowned. "And you chose not to come straight to the hospital wing to get your hand checked as instructed by Professor Slughorn. Why is that?"

Busted. Hermione started to shake. "I'm-I'm sorry professor. You see, I was late to meet Ron in the library and I was able to attend to my hand on my own. I promise, I was actually on my way to the hospital wing when you came in. It was Ron's idea, actually, to come earlier."

"Miss Granger, the contents of the vial that spilled and cut your hand included a very, very rare potion," McGonagall continued. It seemed as if she no longer cared as to why Hermione didn't come to the hospital wing and had already moved on as to what she was doing here now. "That particular potion was discovered to be Imminisus Mortuous. It's a potion that hasn't been used for centuries and quite frankly we are not sure how it ended up on school grounds. But it is considered extremely dangerous. The exact side effects of exposure to this particular substance is relatively unknown so we are currently consulting with healers over at St. Mungo's. Professor Slughorn has already been transferred there to be monitored. Since you were also in direct contact with the substance, we ask that you reside in these chambers until we have confirmed exactly what we are dealing with. Strictly a precaution."

Hermione gulped as she stared up at the large glass case. "I have to stay in that?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so. We will be quarantining you until we can be certain that other students are not at risk of being exposed to the same chemical."

"May I ask why I am not required to go to St. Mungo's as Professor Slughorn was?"

"Professor Slughorn was able to apparate himself directly to the hospital. Since you do not yet have your license to do so, and we are currently hesitant for you to be in direct contact with anyone else, we think it is best that you remain at the school until we receive more information."

Hermione nodded slowly as she processed McGonagall words. "Professor, how much danger am I in?"

McGonagall remained very neutral. "I'm afraid that question will need to be directed towards the healer who will hopefully be arriving from St. Mungo's shortly." With a tap of her wand, the glass case shuddered open, allowing space for Hermione to walk inside.

"Miss Granger, if you will…" McGonagall requested, her arm waving in the direction of the chamber.

Hermione took a deep breath before hesitantly stepping inside the barrier. She gasped as the entry way closed immediately and she was effectively trapped inside the bubble.

"Now, Madame Pomfrey will need to ask you some questions about your hand and I will see to the arrival of the healer from St. Mungo's. I shall be back shortly," With one, final nod, McGonagall disappeared from the room.

Hermione met the concerned gaze of Madame Pomfrey and her insides twisted. Two weeks in self-confinement. She thought briefly of Ron and what he must be thinking. What is going to happen to me?